The field of the present disclosure regards vehicular networks, i.e., technology that normally uses moving cars as nodes in a network to create a mobile network.
In the near future, it is expected that most vehicles will be able to access the Internet either contacting the Road-Side Units (RSUs) that compose the vehicular infrastructure (using IEEE 802.11p or IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n) or through cellular networks (3G and 4G). RSUs can also be used to improve connectivity and communication between vehicles.
In this context, several technologies were already proposed (and they are referenced at the end of this document) that can be used to improve the vehicular communication infrastructure: (i) several ones provide an in-vehicle Wi-Fi or 3G interface that is able to connect to a computer/server/hotspot/base station to provide Internet access to the vehicle's occupants; (ii) others define strategies to establish multi-hop vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and/or vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications using either DSRC 5.9 GHz or cellular technologies to enhance transportation safety and efficiency; (iii) others allow vehicles to be equipped both with DSRC 5.9 GHz, Wi-Fi and/or 3G interfaces, but they do not always provide the best mechanisms for multiple network contexts. In particular, even if the existing QoS solutions are adapted to vehicular networks these do not provide results as advantageous as the present disclosure in vehicular networks as these do not provide the presently disclosed methods. For example, QoS methods usually involve load balancing methods and contention/buffer overflow minimizations that are not apt solutions for vehicular networks.